Joys of Autumn
by Karianasan
Summary: What's bugging Daphne? And will Velma regret asking about it? Everyday story, Enjoy. The rest is up! and I gave you two endings! I hope you'll like both of them!
1. Joys of Autumn

_ But amidst the joys of autumn looms a menace: the inevitable start of cold season._

* * *

"Sigh."

Breathing out deeply, Daphne leaned more into the frame of the living room bow window. Her exhaled breath made the nearby window fog up. Originally, she had settled there to read a magazine she had just gotten in the mail. But in the short time she had been settled in the window, she hadn't gotten much reading done. Her mind was elsewhere…

_It was just too cold!_

"Brrr..."

Using her hands to rub her shoulders, she gave a small little shiver against the chill. The window must have had a small crack in the molding. And it was letting in small bursts of subtle cold air, making the hairs on her arms stand on end. And after a few bursts she couldn't stand it anymore!

"I hate fall!" Snorted Daphne; giving her arms another rub in an effort to warm up.

Looking up from her usual spot, Velma peered over the pages of her current conquest. She had been in the living room long before her best friend had burst into the room in a hurry. And had not had much time to settle back down when Daphne started her grumbling. Figuring this was one of those times, Velma settled a bookmark into place before setting it aside. It wasn't worth the attempt to read, if Daphne was just going to break her concentration over and over again.

"Fall isn't that bad..." Spoke up the young woman from the couch, waiting to see what her friend would do in response. Trying to use her statement as a gauge of how serious Daphne was. This would then change her statements accordingly.

"Well I hate it." Daphne snorted again, into the window beside her. It sounding more like a childish pout, then anything Velma would have to really worry about. Daphne then turned around to give her best friend her full and undivided attention. "It just means that it's going to just get colder. Nothing good will come of it!"

"Well... A decrease in temperature isn't a negative thing. It's bound to happen, as long as we have seasons." Velma mused, trying to point out some good things to Daphne. "It gives us a reason to use the fireplace, and a cup of hot chocolate is always nice in colder weather. Plus all the leaves turning colors, makes a good backdrop for your photography. Isn't that what you always said?"

"Yeah, that is nice... but still!" She said whined. She wasn't even going to consider the comments in her complaints. Even with Velma quoting her own words.

"But still what?" Velma shot her friend a look. Having a feeling there was something more that Daphne wanted to complain about. But unsure what it could be exactly.

"But cold always makes everyone so..." Daphne fussed, getting up off the sill to pace across the living room floor. Earnestly trying to search for the word she was looking for.

"So?" Velma had no clue what Daphne was getting at. Waiting till the woman grasped the vocabulary word she had been seeking. Having the random urge to toss a dictionary or thesaurus at the woman, in hopes that it would make this go quicker.

"So... So... Poofy!"

With an eyebrow peeking over her thick frame, Velma was caught off guard by the word her friend finally fished up. _Poofy? Whatever could she mean?_ Whipping around, Daphne took a stance and defended her claim with gusto! Adding in various hand gestures and jerky movements to convey her option.

"Have you ever stopped to think how hard it is to stay fashionable, when constantly buried under like six layers of clothing?" Daphne said, tossing her hands into the air.

"...How hard it is to show off the latest fashion when there is a thick, poof of cotton barring the way because it's cold? Winter fashions are made more for function then fashion and it drives me nuts!" Daphne ranted, earning her an eye roll from her companion.

"_Oh how will you ever cope_..." Velma sighed, dripping with sarcasm towards Daphne. And here she had been thinking that there was something actually wrong with winter. At least a viable answer that made some logical sense. Or at least sense to her.

"Oh hush you... You… Little miss Sweater twenty-four seven." Daphne snipped back, fighting to actually find a good enough excuse towards her constantly cotton coated friend. (Say that three times fast XD ) But she was failing to find anything more than her friend's beloved attire, to retaliate with.

"You're just jealous, because I can pull this look off." Shifting her shoulders forward, Velma pouted in such a way that left Daphne speechless. While not totally something Velma wouldn't do, the timing through off the red head enough to let Velma realize what she had done and makes an escape towards her room. It was as she was leaving, that Daphne snapped out of it.

"Hey! Wait Velma! Do that again! I want to get it on camera for evidence!" Tossing the magazine aside, she scrambled after the retreating form. "The guys won't believe me otherwise! Come 'on!"

"Noooo..."

* * *

A small chase ensued throughout the house, leaving it a bit worse for wear until Velma took the chase outside. Dodging Daphne's imaginary camera in her hands, she darted this way and that. Velma had been pretty nimble, but her luck ran out as her foot landed on a slippery pile of leaves... Granting the small woman some hang time, until gravity kicked in and ended with an ungraceful landing on the ground with a thud.

"Hoo hoo hoo. Perfect shot there." Daphne held out her fingers, pretending that the box her four fingers made was the lens of her camera. Though, what she would have given to actually have caught that tumble on film. Preferably a video camera, so that she would have been able to slow-mo the scene when she would be re-watching it later. Over and over and over…

"Har har... pfft. You could be nice and help me up, instead of pretending to take pictures of me with my butt in the air." Trying to blow a random bit of hair, that had fallen in front of her eyes.

"Heh, sorry." Moving closer, Daphne extended her hands out to offer to help the fallen brunette. Grasping her hand, Velma pulled to get herself right sided, but then thought of a more devilish idea to get back at the red head. Shifting her weight back, she took Daphne by surprise and tossed her into a nearby pile of leaves. It was bigger than the pile that had taken Velma out in the first place. Gaining her revenge for her friend's earlier actions, Velma was satisfied.

Snorting among the leaves, Daphne found herself buried among the red and orange shades that Velma loved so much. Pushing a few out of the way, she pushed herself up with her elbows.

"Well played Dinkley… well played. I accept my defeat… this time."

Laughing, Velma was happy that Daphne said that, and moved to help her toppled friend. Pushing the leaves off of Daphne, it took a bit to dig her out. Velma had to use both hands to scrape the various leaves and such from her best friend. Thankfully it was easy to find her, as Daphne's purple was a stark contrast against the various autumn shades covering her.

"Man, I'm surprised that there are this many leaves out here. Wow." Velma admitted, making sure to pluck each one off her fashion conscious companion.

"Ugh, see… This is why I hate fall." Daphne snorted, pulling another orange bit out from her hair. Just because they went good together with her hair visually, didn't mean she wanted to be wearing it as an accessory. Velma shook her head, but didn't feel like adding to Daphne's comment. Instead, she shifted her vision to peer around the backyard to see the various heaps of the scattered, fallen foliage.

"Man, we should really clean this up."

Velma sighed, not really jumping to do yard work that day. But at the state it was at the moment, it might be for the best if they cleaned this up in time to put it out for the trash. Coincidentally, it would be picked up the next upcoming day. If they didn't do it now, they would have had to wait till a week later.

"We? Ugh, why should **_we_** clean it up?" Daphne snorted, sending a few leaves scattering with her deep breath outwards. Scowling a bit as the leaves went this way and that.

"Well, do you remember last time we left it up to the duo to handled it?" Velma paused, giving Daphne enough time to recall the incident.

"That, and Fred isn't home today." Velma said, listing the only other people besides them that could do it. But she was trying to prompt Daphne to remembering what happened last time the daring duo had been asked to rake outside.

_…Velma bet that she would still be able to find some dry crumpled remains in her basement._

Getting a thoughtful look, it didn't take Daphne long to recall the crazy instance that her companion was bringing out… As much as she sometimes wished to have forgotten. It had taken her days to get her hair back under control. She had wanted to _kill_ them!

"...By the way... who let them have those leaf blowers, anyway?" Daphne cast a knowing glance over at the brunette, who rolled her eyes.

"**One time!** I forgot one time about the Jello incident and let them have keys to my gas blowers... one time!" Velma said with a huff. They had been conniving though. They made sure that she was so deep in thought over a project, that she wasn't paying attention to they were asking her for. And by the time she realized it… it had been too late.

"Well, wouldn't that be two times?" Daphne laughed, pushing herself to her feet and offering her hand again. Figuring that Velma would actually take it and stand up. Though that didn't mean she wouldn't brace herself, just in case. "The Jello incident and last year's man-made fall tornado?"

Taking the offered hand, Velma pulled herself to her feet. Not even thinking about pulling Daphne back into the leaves, since she had already achieved her revenge earlier. She didn't need to do it again, well... not at the moment. Though she snorted at the mention of two times… Even if it was true. The Jello incident had been a similar situation as well... but she tried not to think about it.

"Well, still. I don't trust those two for raking these up. So that means it's up to us to get it done." Velma surmised, making Daphne sigh.

"Fine. But we both are going to do it…"


	2. Cute Ending

Compared to the front of the house, someone might be surprised to see the pure size of the backyard of the little house in Coolsville. Though not large enough to warrant a driving mover, it was big enough to contain most of the more energetic games of Frisbee that the duo could come up with; and still have room to include several garden patches, (and Shaggy's Carnivorous plants) Velma's Butterfly bushes, and the infamous hammock.

…And all of it was covered in leaves.

"I can't believe that this amount could come from just those two trees." Daphne said with a snort, rake in hand. Once resigning to her fate, it didn't take her and Velma too long to dig out the rakes from the garage. Thankfully they had been put semi-close to the front door. So they didn't have to go diving in to get to them.

"That is a project for another day." Velma said with a sigh. Having five different owners, all with diverse likes and projects, there was little storage space for certain things. Especially when it came to things for outside use. With all the various things that they owned in that garage, it had become almost as bad as the seasonal closet in the basement… Almost.

Gripping the rake in hand, Velma was surveying the backyard with a keen eye. Taking a few calculated steps, she darted her head about the area. Almost like she was making mental marks of places that she was looking at. She was holding the rake in such a manner that caught her companion's attention. Daphne tilted her head, as she watched Velma analyze the expanse of lawn. A few steps here and there, the brunette seemed like she was muttering to herself, obviously trying to calculate something.

_'If she is using some crazy math problem to calculate the volume of leaves that occupy the backyard at the moment… I'm going inside!'_Daphne grumbled mentally to herself.

While she couldn't argue that Velma's mathematical mind comes in handy a lot of the time. Now was really not one of those times that it was needed. That, and Daphne had no desire to know how many pounds of leaves they would be trying to concur. Or a calculated estimate of how many leaves overall they would have to rake up. It was a ton of them! And she didn't mean a ton, in the standard of 2000lbs.

Bringing her attention back to watching the shorter woman, it only took a little bit more mumbling on Velma' part before she seemed to have figured out what ever she had been calculating.

"Here!"

Thrusting her rake into the ground, she moved quickly in a few directions with her rake going to work. Scraping a line across the grass, she gathered all the leaves into one pile in the middle. Efficiently cutting the mass of leaves into two equal sides.

"Ah." Daphne nodded, taking a good look at the two sides. As much as her eyes could tell her, the two looked equally parted. Though her mind couldn't really figure out how Velma could do such a thing with waving the rake a bit and some muttering, she wasn't going to knock it. It worked, why mess with it?

"Alright!" Velma beamed, feeling proud of her calculation and how well it had panned out. "Pick a side."

Resting the rake on the ground, Daphne leaned on it as she placed a hand to her chin. Since it was perfectly cut in half, she was trying to think about what she would have to rake around, to make her decision. While one side had the butterfly bush by it, there wasn't much else besides half the hammock and a bit of a garden against one side of the fence that surrounded the backyard. And the other side had the other half of the hammock, but tended not to have a clear marking of where Shaggy's Venus flytraps were.

"Do you know where… Ugh. What is that called again? Dino… Dina…" Daphne stumbled to find the right word that she was looking for. Forgetting the layman's term in favor for trying to recall the more complicated genus and species that even Shaggy could remember… Somehow.

"Where the…?" Turning to face Daphne, Velma was confused by the question till she was trying to say the name of the particular plant. Which came instantly to mind of the young woman, once the rough attempt of the genius had been spoken aloud.

"Oh, Dionaea muscipula. Not to be mistaken by the other snap trap species, Aldrovanda vesiculosa. Or the Waterwheel plant; which is the only extant variant in the flowering plant genus Aldrovanda in the family of Droseraceae… "Velma trailed off for a second before adding,

"…which was not your question. Rex. Shaggy's carnivorous plant. Yes, I know where he and the rest of them are planted. Why?"

"Well, since I don't know where they are, I'll pick the side that doesn't have them. I really don't want to accidentally step on them, or rake them up accidentally." Daphne knew how much the little guys meant to Shaggy. So she would rather leave it up to Velma, to make sure to avoid them and rake without disturbing them. She wasn't a big fan about plants that fed themselves, but she could appreciate the fact that Shaggy did. That and they had pretty flowers sometimes.

"Ah, makes sense. You will have that side then." Velma pointed out; thrusting the rake in the direction of the side she had already been on. Since it was the same side as the garage, and Daphne hadn't moved too far from it when Velma had started to sum up the sides of the lawn.

"That was nice of you to consider. I'll have to tell the guys, so they could thank you properly for the forethought." Velma said as turned her back to move more on her side. Her head was hanging down a bit, as she was scanning the ground as she was trying to figure out where she wanted to start raking. Daphne was thankful for the distraction, as her face went flush in embarrassment. Not so much about being thoughtful, but more that Velma had plans to tell the guys about it.

"Hmph!" She tried to sound more aloof then she was feeling. "Well you don't have to tell them that. Tell them instead that they should think about moving them somewhere out of the way. So that they won't be in my way."

Daphne snorted, turning her frustrations out on the leaves in front of her. Trying to keep her head down, until the blush left her face. Though if Velma had noticed, Daphne didn't know.

Silence had fallen between the two of them as they worked. No words were spoke, but there was the constant sound of the rakes hitting the leaves as they slowly gathered them on their respective sides. With her face returning to normal, she worked past the awkward moment she had before, and was actually getting into the raking when she cast a look over at Velma.

**_!_**

Looking over, Velma had moved herself far away from the line that cut the two parts in half. And she was systematically trying to gather all the leaves from one side to the other, eventually ending with the massive pile in the middle. While Velma wasn't even half way yet, she was making pretty good progress.

Looking back at her own work, Daphne hadn't planned it out that far. She had just started around the spot she had been standing and was gathering it into smaller piles she figured that she would pull towards the middle eventually. But she felt behind!

_'I'm not going to lose to her!'_Daphne thought, though her mind's determination surprised herself for a second. But giving it a second thought, there was nothing wrong with some friendly competition. Even if it was just in her own head.

But not wanting to lose, Daphne moved to her next spot and tried to speed up in her work. Raking the leaves with more energy and fervor. Kicking up the nearby foliage and pressed them towards the center with a purpose. But she made sure not to make it too obvious that she was competing, just in case Velma would think her silly for it. Increasing her speed and work gradually, so that the younger detective might not notice her subtle increase in work. Daphne hoped that Velma was too absorbed in her own work, to catch on.

The work continued like that for a while. Daphne snuck glances occasionally to keep tabs on Velma's progress. Pushing Daphne almost each time to do better; even if she felt like she was winning against the other woman at the time. Winning made her want to win by more of a margin, loosing meant she needed to pick up the pace… But they were each more than half way finished.

"I hope you don't mind… But I've been competing against you the whole time."

Whipping her head from where she was working, Daphne stared at Velma's back as she desperately tried to understand the statement that she had just clearly heard from the other woman. Blinking a few times, Daphne was slow to fully understand what had just happened.

_Wait… this whole time; Velma had been competing against me? Same as I was pushing myself to do with her?_

"Wahahahahahahaha!" Bursting out into laughter caused the younger woman to look over at Daphne with a look of surprise look of her own. Maybe Velma had been thinking along the same lines this whole time, and felt bad for competition against her friend without telling her. So she decided to say it aloud, with an off handed manner. Not really knowing how Daphne would react. The explosion of laughter had not really high on her list of reactions, she had been expecting from the red head.

"I was doing the same thing!" Daphne admitted, finally able to get herself under control enough to get it out past her giggles. _This whole time… and they had been thinking the very same thing!_

With Daphne admitting it, Velma understood the laughter and joined in with a set of giggles. A bemused smile gracing her face, twisting it to one side. And here Velma thought the most likely outcome, would be Daphne getting annoyed at her. So it was a relief to find out they were thinking the very same thing.

It took a little bit, before their giggles tapered off and they found themselves snickering at each other. But something caught Daphne's eye. Even though she had been distracted with giggling, Velma had continued to rake unconsciously, and had caught up to the lead that Daphne had been able to establish earlier. Wide eyed, Daphne soon switched it to an accusing squint towards Velma. She knew that she probably wasn't trying to do it on purpose… or was she…

"I'll beat you Dinkley! You're going down!" Daphne shouted with a laugh, using Velma's last name to issue the challenge. Putting her family pride on stake, along with personal pride.

"Bring it on Blake. You'll be eating my dust!" Velma challenged back, smile never leaving her face. The spark of friendly competition, igniting both of their fighting spirits!

As the daylight started to fade, it didn't take long for the two ladies at their heightened rate of competition to finish collecting all the leaves into one, glorious pile in the middle of the backyard. Pushed and stacked up tall, the mound of leaves had to be at least five feet in diameter, and had a circumference of over fifteen feet. (Though it was more like 5.2 feet with a 16.336281798669 circumference... But only Velma was really thinking that far.) Though it wasn't as tall of either one of them, it still stood far higher than either had expected. Walking around it, Daphne joined Velma at looking at their masterpiece. Leaning on the shoulder of her shorter companion, they both looked over at the color spectrum of autumn condensed into one big pile.

"Wow… Ok, that was fun." Daphne said, letting out a breath as she was finally coming down from her adrenaline rush to try to beat Velma in time. Velma was catching her breath too, having pushed herself in that last little bit.

"Yeah, that was." Velma smiled, wrapping her arm around Daphne's waist to help keep up with the taller woman's stride. Mentally thinking about breaking into the Monkee walk, though her arm would have to strain to comfortably sit upon Daphne's shoulder. But she doubted the woman was feeling silly enough to do that at the moment. As much as Velma felt like breaking into it.

"You seem in a good mood…" Daphne said, looking down over at Velma. "…Even though I won."

"Sure sure, you keep thinking that." Velma mused, giving Daphne a hip bump. "I clearly won that one by a few rake fulls!"

"Nuh uh!" Daphne responded maturely, enjoying the friendly banter.

"Uh huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Uh huh!" Velma argued back, though finally added a raspberry at the end to up the ante. Not wanting to lose against Daphne in this silly exchange either.

"Oh real mature Dinkley." Daphne snorted back, returning the hip bump.

* * *

_Authors note: This is loosely based on an exchange between me and my brother that happened once. When we were kids, we used to go at each other over and over again. But as we got older, it became more out of habit to compete then the actual desire to beat each other. _

_Though, I remember with great detail about the events building up to the reveal of the mutual competition... For the life of me, I can't remember who won. XD  
_


	3. Shaggy Ending

Compared to the front of the house, someone might be surprised to see the pure size of the backyard of the little house in Coolsville. Though not large enough to warrant a driving mover, it was big enough to contain most of the more energetic games of Frisbee that the duo could come up with; and still have room to include several garden patches, (and Shaggy's Carnivorous plants) Velma's Butterfly bushes, and the infamous hammock.

…And all of it was covered in leaves.

"I can't believe that this amount could come from just those two trees." Daphne said with a snort, rake in hand. Once resigning to her fate, it didn't take her and Velma too long to dig out the rakes from the garage. Thankfully they had been put semi-close to the front door. So they didn't have to go diving in to get to them.

"That is a project for another day." Velma said with a sigh. Having five different owners, all with diverse likes and projects, there was little storage space for certain things. Especially when it came to things for outside use. With all the various things that they owned in that garage, it had become almost as bad as the seasonal closet in the basement… Almost.

Gripping the rake in hand, Velma was surveying the backyard with a keen eye. Taking a few calculated steps, she darted her head about the area. Almost like she was making mental marks of places that she was looking at. She was holding the rake in such a manner that caught her companion's attention. Daphne tilted her head, as she watched Velma analyze the expanse of lawn. A few steps here and there, the brunette seemed like she was muttering to herself, obviously trying to calculate something.

_'If she is using some crazy math problem to calculate the volume of leaves that occupy the backyard at the moment… I'm going inside!'_Daphne grumbled mentally to herself.

While she couldn't argue that Velma's mathematical mind comes in handy a lot of the time. Now was really not one of those times that it was needed. That, and Daphne had no desire to know how many pounds of leaves they would be trying to concur. Or a calculated estimate of how many leaves overall they would have to rake up. It was a ton of them! And she didn't mean a ton, in the standard of 2000lbs.

Bringing her attention back to watching the shorter woman, it only took a little bit more mumbling on Velma' part before she seemed to have figured out what ever she had been calculating.

"Here!"

Thrusting her rake into the ground, she moved quickly in a few directions with her rake going to work. Scraping a line across the grass, she gathered all the leaves into one pile in the middle. Efficiently cutting the mass of leaves into two equal sides.

"Ah." Daphne nodded, taking a good look at the two sides. As much as her eyes could tell her, the two looked equally parted. Though her mind couldn't really figure out how Velma could do such a thing with waving the rake a bit and some muttering, she wasn't going to knock it. It worked, why mess with it?

"Alright!" Velma beamed, feeling proud of her calculation and how well it had panned out. "Pick a side."

Resting the rake on the ground, Daphne leaned on it as she placed a hand to her chin. Since it was perfectly cut in half, she was trying to think about what she would have to rake around, to make her decision. While one side had the butterfly bush by it, there wasn't much else besides half the hammock and a bit of a garden against one side of the fence that surrounded the backyard. And the other side had the other half of the hammock, but tended not to have a clear marking of where Shaggy's Venus flytraps were.

"Do you know where… Ugh. What is that called again? Dino… Dina…" Daphne stumbled to find the right word that she was looking for. Forgetting the layman's term in favor for trying to recall the more complicated genus and species that even Shaggy could remember… Somehow.

"Where the…?" Turning to face Daphne, Velma was confused by the question till she was trying to say the name of the particular plant. Which came instantly to mind of the young woman, once the rough attempt of the genius had been spoken aloud.

"Oh, Dionaea muscipula. Not to be mistaken by the other snap trap species, Aldrovanda vesiculosa. Or the Waterwheel plant; which is the only extant variant in the flowering plant genus Aldrovanda in the family of Droseraceae… "Velma trailed off for a second before adding,

"…which was not your question. Rex. Shaggy's carnivorous plant. Yes, I know where he and the rest of them are planted. Why?"

"Well, since I don't know where they are, I'll pick the side that doesn't have them. I really don't want to accidentally step on them, or rake them up accidentally." Daphne knew how much the little guys meant to Shaggy. So she would rather leave it up to Velma, to make sure to avoid them and rake without disturbing them. She wasn't a big fan about plants that fed themselves, but she could appreciate the fact that Shaggy did. That and they had pretty flowers sometimes.

"Ah, makes sense. You will have that side then." Velma pointed out; thrusting the rake in the direction of the side she had already been on. Since it was the same side as the garage, and Daphne hadn't moved too far from it when Velma had started to sum up the sides of the lawn.

"That was nice of you to consider. I'll have to tell the guys, so they could thank you properly for the forethought." Velma said as turned her back to move more on her side. Her head was hanging down a bit, as she was scanning the ground as she was trying to figure out where she wanted to start raking. Daphne was thankful for the distraction, as her face went flush in embarrassment. Not so much about being thoughtful, but more that Velma had plans to tell the guys about it.

"Hmph!" She tried to sound more aloof then she was feeling. "Well you don't have to tell them that. Tell them instead that they should think about moving them somewhere out of the way. So that they won't be in my way."

Daphne snorted, turning her frustrations out on the leaves in front of her. Trying to keep her head down, until the blush left her face. Though if Velma had noticed, Daphne didn't know.

Silence had fallen between the two of them as they worked. No words were spoke, but there was the constant sound of the rakes hitting the leaves as they slowly gathered them on their respective sides. With her face returning to normal, she worked past the awkward moment she had before, and was actually getting into the raking when she cast a look over at Velma.

**_!_**

Looking over, Velma had moved herself far away from the line that cut the two parts in half. And she was systematically trying to gather all the leaves from one side to the other, eventually ending with the massive pile in the middle. While Velma wasn't even half way yet, she was making pretty good progress.

Looking back at her own work, Daphne hadn't planned it out that far. She had just started around the spot she had been standing and was gathering it into smaller piles she figured that she would pull towards the middle eventually. But she felt behind!

_'I'm not going to lose to her!'_Daphne thought, though her mind's determination surprised herself for a second. But giving it a second thought, there was nothing wrong with some friendly competition. Even if it was just in her own head.

But not wanting to lose, Daphne moved to her next spot and tried to speed up in her work. Raking the leaves with more energy and fervor. Kicking up the nearby foliage and pressed them towards the center with a purpose. But she made sure not to make it too obvious that she was competing, just in case Velma would think her silly for it. Increasing her speed and work gradually, so that the younger detective might not notice her subtle increase in work. Daphne hoped that Velma was too absorbed in her own work, to catch on.

The work continued like that for a while. Daphne snuck glances occasionally to keep tabs on Velma's progress. Pushing Daphne almost each time to do better; even if she felt like she was winning against the other woman at the time. Winning made her want to win by more of a margin, loosing meant she needed to pick up the pace… But they were each more than half way finished.

"I hope you don't mind… But I've been competing against you the whole time."

Whipping her head from where she was working, Daphne stared at Velma's back as she desperately tried to understand the statement that she had just clearly heard from the other woman. Blinking a few times, Daphne was slow to fully understand what had just happened.

_Wait… this whole time; Velma had been competing against me? Same as I was pushing myself to do with her?_

"Wahahahahahahaha!" Bursting out into laughter caused the younger woman to look over at Daphne with a look of surprise look of her own. Maybe Velma had been thinking along the same lines this whole time, and felt bad for competition against her friend without telling her. So she decided to say it aloud, with an off handed manner. Not really knowing how Daphne would react. The explosion of laughter had not really high on her list of reactions, she had been expecting from the red head.

"I was doing the same thing!" Daphne admitted, finally able to get herself under control enough to get it out past her giggles. _This whole time… and they had been thinking the very same thing!_

With Daphne admitting it, Velma understood the laughter and joined in with a set of giggles. A bemused smile gracing her face, twisting it to one side. And here Velma thought the most likely outcome, would be Daphne getting annoyed at her. So it was a relief to find out they were thinking the very same thing.

It took a little bit, before their giggles tapered off and they found themselves snickering at each other. But something caught Daphne's eye. Even though she had been distracted with giggling, Velma had continued to rake unconsciously, and had caught up to the lead that Daphne had been able to establish earlier. Wide eyed, Daphne soon switched it to an accusing squint towards Velma. She knew that she probably wasn't trying to do it on purpose… or was she…

"I'll beat you Dinkley! You're going down!" Daphne shouted with a laugh, using Velma's last name to issue the challenge. Putting her family pride on stake, along with personal pride.

"Bring it on Blake. You'll be eating my dust!" Velma challenged back, smile never leaving her face. The spark of friendly competition, igniting both of their fighting spirits!

As the daylight started to fade, it didn't take long for the two ladies at their heightened rate of competition to finish collecting all the leaves into one, glorious pile in the middle of the backyard. Pushed and stacked up tall, the mound of leaves had to be at least five feet in diameter, and had a circumference of over fifteen feet. (Though it was more like 5.2 feet with a 16.336281798669 circumference... But only Velma was really thinking that far.) Though it wasn't as tall of either one of them, it still stood far higher than either had expected. Walking around it, Daphne joined Velma at looking at their masterpiece. Leaning on the shoulder of her shorter companion, they both looked over at the color spectrum of autumn condensed into one big pile.

"Wow… Ok, that was fun." Daphne said, letting out a breath as she was finally coming down from her adrenaline rush to try to beat Velma in time. Velma was catching her breath too, having pushed herself in that last little bit. Leaning on each other, Daphne pushed them both towards the kitchen's back door to take the time for them both to calm down from their competition, before they had to go and rake it into bags to take out to the front. And right now, a cup of hot chocolate sounded really good right now.

"Come on, we'll come back and get this in a bit. I have a hankering for hot chocolate, and it's your fault for mentioning it earlier." Daphne poked Velma accusingly, who only laughed and tried to dodge the pokes.

"Hehehe, come on. Sure sure. I'll take the blame for that one." Velma snickered, moving with Daphne towards the back door.

"Man, I want to grab my camera before we rake that all up. That is a really nice backdrop, if I don't say so myself."

Daphne smirked, recalling Velma bringing up that very point earlier. With earned a eye roll from Velma, though she said nothing against it. It would be really nice for a wall paper for her laptop. So she wanted a picture of it too. She would just have to bug Daphne later for it…

"Yahoo!"  
"R'ahoo!"

With the pair of familiar shouts sounding off behind them, the two women each whipped themselves towards each other and managed to come around wide eyed, in time to watch in horror as two well placed cannon balls made an explosion against the compact pile of leaves. With the force of their jumps, it scattered the foliage in every direction… Undoing all their hard work that had occupied more then an hour prior.

With Shaggy's back towards the two of them; he came to the surface of the leaves, tossing handfuls into the air with great joy. Scooby joined in as well, facing his companion for a little bit, until he noticed the two looming figures that was coming up behind his buddy. With a look that made all the color drain out of the Dane, rivaling many monsters that he had seen in the past. At first he tried tugging on Shaggy's sleeve to get his attention. But when one yank didn't work, he gripped it and started to tug in earnest; picking up in speed to his pulls till his paw almost was a blur of movement. At that point, Shaggy noticed the look from his companion. But he only pulled his sleeve out of the dog's grip with a huff.

"Oh come on Scoob. Have fun!"

"…"

It was then, that Shaggy felt the tell tale presence of something that he should run from. Eye growing wide, he looked up in time to notice Daphne making a grab for him. Ouch of ingrained habit, Shaggy dodged the vengeful grip of the red head, and pushed off to gain some distance between him and the two angry ladies. But Scooby was spooked stiff, making Shaggy have to dash back in order to grab the Dane in time.

"**_Zoinks!_**"

Bursting into a run, (which kicked up even more leaves.) Shaggy with Scooby in arms, were off and running. Daphne took a few steps to try to catch up to them, but she knew that she would never have been able to catch up to him at that point. She was already tired from competing against Velma, she really didn't want to try to push herself against the conditioned fear dash that Shaggy was using just then. Her killing aura, equaling many of the villains that they had run into in the past. And even in tip top condition, she would have a hard time keeping up at his max speed. Even with him carrying Scooby.

"I'll get your Norville!" Daphne shouted, not even sure that he would hear her. But it made her feel a bit better anyway. That, and her mind was already trying to think about a proper revenge for those two… Though Velma was already on it.

"_Daph~neeee…_" Velma said with a sing song tone in her voice… Which had usually only been reserved for when the woman was extracting revenge on her. But it gave away her devious intentions.

Looking over at Velma, she had moved closer to the side of the house and had been looking at windows. Particularly one window… That belonged to the two that had just caused all the trouble. Taking the corner of her rake, Velma easily wedged one of the edges into the small crack and used the pole to help slide up the window. Giving a clear and open method in order to exact their revenge.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Asked the mischievous brunette.

_'It's always the quiet ones you have to worry about.'_Daphne thought with a chuckle.

"As long as you hide the gas blowers, and don't expect that pile to be taken care by tomorrow… I'm in." Daphne said with a grin, plucking the rake up from where she had dropped it on the ground in order to try to chase after the two.

"Alright, we'll work together this time." Velma said smiling back, her rake still in hand as she started to pull a batch of leaves towards the duo's room.

"This will teach them…" The two said in unison.

* * *

_Authors Note:_ _Growing up, my dad did all sorts of crazy things over the years. And jumping into a freshly raked pile of leaves, after HE told me or me and my brother to rake... had happened. Several times. Though I'm not as vendictive as the two ladies here. But it didn't mean I didn't think about it. Plus... I figure Shaggy and Scooby can't help themselves. It's good, wholesome fun to jump into a pile of leaves. So I had to write a Shaggy Scooby ending too._


End file.
